Tintin book printing faults and anomalies

Hello, I looked through the forums and couldn't find a thread about this, so I thought I'd write one because of the large amount of printing faults that I have noticed in Tintin (and Asterix for that matter) books.

For example in Tintin in America (the colour version) there was for many reprints of the book (no longer in my new hardback version) a small pink blemish on the last frame on page 61. This may seem a petty thing to bring up (maybe it is petty! LOL) but it always looked like someone had made a mark with a pink felt pen or a watercolour paint brush and it seemed to be reproduced for many runs of this book. It appeared in the speech bubble of the guy behind the wheel of the fake police boat. It looked like a letter 'Y'. I was always curious about what this was...

Another set of faults that often occur in many reprints of the the same titles over and over are the overlapping and mismatching of the clour washes with their black line borders. I'm not quite sure what the technical term for this is, but it is when the colour isn't matched up with the area that it is supposed to be filling (e.g. blue for Tintin's Jumper).

One of the worst books for this that I have seen in many different copies is "Flight 714". Especially on page 17 as the Carreidas Jet comes into it's rough landing on the island. In so many copies that I have seen of this book this page is severely mismatched so that it creates a dizzying sense of vibration that is probably appropriate considering the rough landing, but annoying when trying to view the artwork in it's correct form.

Is there a reason why the same title might have many copies that are mismatched like this? Is it a fault with the setting of the printers and the different layers of colours that are laid down to create the artwork? I assume that if a printer is 'miss-set' for a page of art then when that page is printed (until the fault is fixed) then all copies will have that fault in that run.

Does anyone know why this might seem to occur in the same place in a book over several prints though? Maybe there have been faulty 'master copies' of the pages in which this seems to happen so often...?

Does anyone else also have any strange printing faults or oddities that they have noticed? I'm not talking about the difference between the different versions of the stories (e.g. the 3 different versions of "L'Isle Noir"). I'm just talking about the actual physical printing process.

Something that is on a similiar theme is the different quality paper that they print Tintin books on now. When I was growing up they had the pages printed on a matte finish Cartridge type of paper - which occasionally one could see through to the other side! The colours seemed more muted and somehow more subtle. The glossy think paper that they use now gives one a very different feel for Herge's artwork and the colours can come across as more vibrant but sometimes less pleasing to my eye. But I must admit to getting used to the glossy paper (it isn't see through anyway!) and it has a certain 'class' to it.

But it does seem to discolour into yellowishness more quickly than the older matte paper did. Even when kept in dry conditions it can go yellow and blotchy around the dges. Although this has happened to one or two of my old hardback Tintin books with the matte paper as well (e.g. to a small extent with my copy of the first English print of "The Blue Lotus"). None of this is too bad, but it does make me wonder how to prevent it happening to any great extent. A friend told me that it is due to the acidity of the paper and the oxygen in the air. I dunno - I aint no Professor Calculus!

Kam

Hi Kam,

Like Hergé himself, you seem to have a great eye for detail:)

I don’t know if this counts as a printing error, but it’s certainly a glaring continuity error. I refer to the sequence in TINTIN IN AMERICA, page 35. Tintin awakes to find his brown boots have been stolen by a villain and a black pair left in their place. Two frames later, Tintin’s boots (as if by magic) return to a brown colour again! – I wonder why they’ve never rectified this?

Another colouring anomaly I noticed ... page 31, THE BLUE LOTUS. Tintin is challenged by a British soldier on sentry duty; the soldier’s hair changes to a bright yellow, and then back to a more natural red shade. Two pages later, it’s yellow again!
Have you ever met anyone with bright yellow hair? (me neither).

Now you’ve got me started, take a look at the cover of TINTIN in the LAND OF THE SOVIETS. Notice how the title lettering is misaligned with the illustration of Tintin and Snowy below it?. It’s never looked right to me. I can imagine something like this occurring as a result of a printing error. However, I presume the cover is how Hergé intended it to be as he would surely have had the opportunity to change things in subsequent print runs.

Finally, regarding the glossy paper used in the current Tintin books; I prefer the earlier type paper for much the same reasons that you mention. I feel fortunate that most of the books in my collection are of the mat-finish type.

-Harry-

I prefer the glossy because they look better, but they fingerprint a bit to easily. So the matte-finish pages are probably better suited.

Hi,

I have bought 21 Tintin books about 2 years back. So they all are the glossy paper type. Having read the problems that can occur with this type of paper has got me worried. Can anyone tell me how to prevent any damage to my prized collection? Any help in this matter highly appreciated.

Regards,
Sandeep Gupte.

It tends to take a while before it starts happening in my experience. Maybe a year or two?
But, having said that, if you don't want it to happen you could keep the books in those plastic sheath/envelops that comic collectors sometimes keep their comics in for protection.
This apparently helps prevent the oxygen reacting with the chemicals used in the highly bleached paper.

I haven't bothered to go that far myself, and will probably find myself with yellowed pages in years to come!
LOL